The High Five, Vol. 2

By
Pat Dooley
-
17
455

OK, so Let’s see Saturday turned into Letdown Saturday as the games we couldn’t wait for turned out to be kind of anti-climatic. The High Five presses on. But with a glitch. Thanks to lousy wireless service in the press box in Jax, the last two items never showed up on this blog. Hopefully, they are there now.

1. We can eliminate Christian Ponder from the Heisman race. And the front-runner has to be Denard Robinson. The Michigan quarterback had his Heisman moment by scoring the winning touchdown against Notre Dame. Robinson, who was down to Michigan and UF before signing with the Wolverines, ran for 258 yards and accounted for 502 total yards.

2. Wait a minute, I thought FSU was back. The Seminoles fan base may now realize that it’s going to take more than getting a few big recruits to right things in Tally. And I’m willing to admit that maybe all that Oklahoma love in the pre-season was justified.

3. I talked to the ball coach Sunday and, yes, there was a lilt in his voice after that big win over Georgia. “I called my Gator friends and told them we kind of turned things around, all those years when Georgia would line up and run it down our throats,” he said. “We did it to them this time.” Freshman Marcus Lattimore ran 37 times for 182 yards in the game and Spurrier took a shot at new Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. “That little inside zone play, the NFL doesn’t run that play,” Spurrier said. “That’s a new scheme, I guess. I’m sure they knew we’d run it, but they certainly didn’t stop it much.”

4. Remember how, before the season, the ACC was talking about the first two weeks of the season and how it would be a chance to sit at the big people’s table? In the four big games, the ACC teams went 0-4. And Virginia Tech lost to Jimmy Madison. And Georgia Tech lost to a team that lost to North Dakota State. Back to the kiddies’ table ACC. When your signature moment is Virginia almost beating USC, you are hardly an elite league.

5. Player of the week goes here and it could easily be Denard Robinson for the second straight year. Instead, give me a little Jeff Demps. He was amazing Saturday and it looks like he will need to be all season.

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17 COMMENTS

  1. First of all, THANKS PAT for getting us (THE GATOR NATON) another venue to vent and praise on…the other being your talk show…IF you don’t listen to it @ 4:00 on 105 The Game …YOU SHOULD!
    Way to go South Carolina! Too bad Rocky Top-so sad! (NOT!)
    And to J.FISH and THe NOLE NATION -KARMA, KARMA, KARMA!!!!
    The Gator O looked like the team we have been so IMPATIENTLy waiting for and the D looked great against the pass …suspect on the run-game. i WONDER HOW THE VOLS WE DO AGAINST THE GATOR RUN DEFENSE!?! WE WILL FIND OUT SOON!
    Coach Meyer, PLEASE STOP THE SHUTTLE-PITCH(PASS) -it is PLAYED-OUT! And while Im at it -COULD WE SEE A QUICK SLANT pass play every once in a while-esp on 3rdand short????? THANKS!!!

  2. Not sure the shuttle pass is played out, but rather mismanaged/predictable. Dating back to the SEC CG, the Tailback appears to be open outside but we’ve FORCED the inside shuttle pass. Maybe the camera didn’t show the defender in position for the TB, but that’s what it’s looked like to me. Pitch it outside enough to make defenders second-guess which way the ball will go on future option calls.

  3. Pat,
    Enjoy your column.
    Is it me or are we saddled with an unfair number of early starts in September? Do any of our “higher-ups” attempt to communicate to the TV folks that it isn’t really fair to subject us so often to noon starts: Particularly when the likes of Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas and Kentucky get late times almost every week.

  4. Agree about the shuttle pass, Demps probably could’ve kicked it outside with the pitch, but again, why run unless Brantley will actually take off once or twice with it himself. And is that what we really want? Not sure I saw the offense we’re waiting for – it could be a lot better, and it seems like there’s still no rhythm. Brantley missed on some passes, but the o-line needs to still block better; and why are we calling so many running plays. Never have an o-line coach call your plays.

  5. Still say try a BIG back in the lineup. Try one who weighs over 230 pounds. If we are going to play power football lets put some REAL BIG power in there and ram it down the Vols throats. Another threat added to Demps’. Gillisee’s, Moody’s great play. Billy Latsko successfully went from a linebacker to a running back; why not try this with another linebacker? Crash and crush football…

  6. Pat,
    If the shovel pass is still in the arsenal then JB is going to have to keep it once in a while in order for it to work. Also, Gillislee IS all the “big back” we need to pound it up the middle. That kid is a freight train that runs between the tackles with bad intentions.

  7. Paul- Turns out most of our linebackers weigh less than 230 right now so no luck there. We do however have a couple of fullbacks (Steve Wilks and TJ Pridemore), but I suspect you’ll see the power running you want when we bring out Jordan Reed for some of those special Tebow packages.

  10. I was glad to see the Gators growing up quickly last game against USF. They got punched in the mouth early and responded well after tying the game 7-7.
    Playing at Rocky Top will not be easy. I saw a Tenn Team playing their hearts out against Oregon until Oregon show their superiority. I don’t expect the Gators to walk all over the Vols next game, but I am sure our Gators will give everything they got since it is SEC Time now! I have a feeling our offense will put an entire game together while the defense keeps rolling like they usually do.
    GO Gators, play like it is us against the world at Neyland Stadium!

  11. Actually, I DO expect UF to pound the salt out of UT. UT put all their eggs in the Oregon basket, to the point of hiring a DC from BOise because his defense shut down the Oregon offense last year.

    Dooley’s plan was to pull off a huge upset against the Ducks, get a ton of positive publicity, and hold that game up as the future standard for UT football to the recruits. A win there could have shortened the turnaround time by a couple of years.

    Now, he has to get his young squad, which is now lacking in both depth and confidence, ready for a Gator team that looks to be rounding into form.

    Don’t forget, we are going up there at 3:30. This isn’t a cool, rainy evening game which helps a team with little depth, this is an afternoon game where the sun is going to broil all those Vol freshmen.

    I look for us to be up 10 at the half, and Brantley out of the game with 10 minutes to go after leading UF to a 21 point outburst in the 3rd.

    UT is a great practice game for Bama (big loud road crowd), and we also have Kentucky after that, so I expect us to be running on all cylinders come Bammer time.

  12. 100% the truth: I told my wife when the Gators lined up “Here comes the shuttle pass to the TE.” Like someone else mentioned, it has become predictable. And like someone else mentioned, Demps WAS open on the outside to pitch it to. I was there, so it wasn’t your camera angle. Something about our “option” plays is it doesn’t seem like any of them are options. They all seem pre-called runs. The QB rarely seems to read the defense and pick the best way to go. Even Tebow kept it alot of times when the pitch man was wide open. If you want to run option, then give the QB some options. That takes away the predictability!
    I’ll be in TN, so let’s Go Gators! I expect us to wear down TN like Oregon did. They just aren’t deep enough yet.

  13. That pitch to the TailBack will come! Brantley needs the game to slow down just a little bit more. That’s a hard play for a QB to run. They have to make a choice in a split second and make a bad one, like pitching the ball outside and having a cornerback intercept it and go for six is scary.

    Wait until you see the game Demps has against UT. I predict that our big, physical O-Line will have UT pounded into the ground by half and Demps and G-Man will run like stallions! You read it here first my friends!

  14. If you want to run the option-pitch-junk..either:

    A. Make sure Brantley can do it correctly (Haven’t seen it)

    or

    B. Have Trey Burton run those plays..he can run pretty damn well and I’m sure he can do it 100% better..and the play will have better results, as well.

    Remember how Tebow was used in ’06?

    Why can’t it be that way with Trey?

    Makes sense, right?!

    C’mon coaches!

  16. Denard Robinson is good and may go on to win the Heisman. But saying he scored the winning touchdown against Notre Dame? Isn’t that like my favorite bumper sticker of all time: “Honk if you sacked Troy Smith.”